Sunday, August 24, 2008

The sun came out and warmed the cockpit but then the clouds came. However, we had enough wind to sail out of the anchorage towards Belfast. The radar showed showers all around us but none hit us. As we turned the corner to head north the wind dropped off to less than 5 kts so we turned on the iron genny until we reached Islesboro. The sun came out again and with it came wind, about 10 to 15 kts to push us north.

As we rounded the northern tip of Islesboro we noticed several boats severely tipped over beyond the point. One turned 180 and headed back to the lee of the point and less wind. Humm, perhaps we ought to reef more. I pulled in the jib and let main leeward but as we cleared the point of land, the wind hit us like a sledgehammer. I have never put the rain under on this boat but we came close. I headed the boat into the wind and the crew worked together to pull the jib in to the most extreme reef point and the main in so only 1/6 was showing. Pointing back towards Belfast, I saw the GPS hit 8.1 kts several times with the average around 7.5 kts which was amazing to me given the small sail area we were carrying. Every so often, we would get splashed in the cockpit from the waves coming up the bay as we headed across it. However, we were sailing in control and the boat was steady on course. That's Ann Mehaffey in the photo.

In Belfast we picked up a dock and relaxed from out sail. Later that evening we had a lobster dinner at the Weathervane restaurant near the dock, nice.